Mashrafe drops and catches

There were many ways for Tendai Chatara to know that Taijul Islam, at the top of his mark in the 29th over, was on a hat-trick. The big screen obviously had the sign, the crowd was roaring and, more precisely, Tinashe Panyangara and John Nyumbu had got out to Taijul off two successive balls.

So when Chatara played a slog across the line exposing all three stumps and giving Taijul all three to aim at, the shot looked ridiculous for a hat-trick delivery. After he had completed the follow-through, he kept looking towards Chigumbura at the other end.

Mashrafe Mortaza had dropped Vusi Sibanda in the 14th over after the batsman slammed Jubair Hossain's short ball towards midwicket. He spilled the chance, and at the time, the drop seemed dangerous for Bangladesh.

However, Mortaza made up for it with a better catch, a sharp one from the same batsman, at the same fielding position but he was much squarer this time. He had to move further to his right to haul this one in, and slammed the ball on the ground. Relief.

Hamilton Masakadza was dictating terms in the 79-run second-wicket stand with Sibanda. He moved around his crease a lot to the Bangladesh pace bowlers, particularly Abul Hasan who was hammered for three fours in one over. The third of those came with Masakadza being very still at his crease, driving the full ball down the ground.

It screamed past the umpire and the non-striker while mid-off hardly moved an inch.

Masakadza likes to drive the ball away from his body, and that has been his bane in this ODI series. The first two times it was Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan, and today it was Jubair who found that gap. Masakadza had been hammering the ball quite well till the 18th over when Jubair's googly foxed him as he tried another big drive. Masakadza missed the ball, which clattered onto his stumps and it was the beginning of Zimbabwe's end.

You don't often see Mahmudullah react in happiness or anger in the middle. It is normally a mild smile following a wicket or reaching a fifty. With Chatara attacking him from round the wicket with an umbrella slip cordon and leg-side trap waiting, it perhaps enlivened his cheeky side.

He first gave Chatara a Chanderpaulesque stance as he raced in, and as soon as he neared the crease, Mahmudullah reverted to his normal stance. Chatara hit him on the helmet with a bouncer, the ball racing away for four over the slips. Mahmudullah turned and appeared to do a Nelson Muntz: "Ha ha!"